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Working in Home Care enlightened me on Long Term Care Insurance

A few mornings ago, I spent some time with my wife and a representative from AARP/Genworth Financial to look into long term care insurance for our future. I probably never would have thought to do this if I didn't work in home care and have daily views on the cost of long term care. Even though I'm in my 40s and in excellent health, this seems like an important consideration for our future and our children. Here are a few things that I learned:

Unlike life insurance, long term care insurance is something that you're very likely to use in your lifetime

The care insurance that we looked at would help pay for home care when we need it

The cost comes down to your age and your health (the insurance company bases rates on how long you're likely to live and to pay into the program)

We can also consider an option where we pay off our coverage over a 10 year period

We also looked at an option where we contract for care for the two of us, but there is flexibility so that the benefit can be used more for one or the other of us

At the end of the day, our perspective is that this can be very valuable for us both financially and from a peace of mind perspective. It can make it so our kids can care about us when we're old, but not have to care for us, and we're interested in paying it off while we're still in the peak earning time in our lives.

But the question is "so what?"

As you know, Ankota likes to share our expertise with you not only via our products and services but in other areas like social media and entrepreneurship, and I see an entrepreneurship opportunity for home care agencies here... What if, as a public service you team with your local AARP Long Term Care Insurance rep to do seminars in the communities that you serve to educate people on the costs and options for long term care, the associated costs, and the potential of long term care insurance to offset those costs. This will get your name in the newspaper (PR instead of advertising) and help establish more of a name and reputation for your agency. Plus, it's an ongoing need so perhaps you can do it every six months.

What is your agency doing to differentiate?

Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital. Today Ankota services home health, private duty care, DME Delivery, RT, Physical Therapy and Home Infusion organizations, and is interested in helping to efficiently manage other forms of care. To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact Ankota